Growth of FiOS in Florida Spurs Opening of Fiber Solutions Center in Tampa

Growth of FiOS in Florida Spurs Opening of Fiber Solutions Center in Tampa

Verizon's Ninth Regional FSC Will Employ 200; Company Is Initially Filling 120 Positions

TAMPA, Fla., Oct. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- As a result of customer demand for Verizon's popular FiOS services, the company will open its ninth regional Fiber Solutions Center (FSC), which will serve the Florida market. The new center will provide support for both the growing FiOS customer base and Verizon field technicians. It will open in December and will be located in downtown Tampa at 610 Morgan St.

Hiring has already started for 120 fiber customer-support analyst and fiber-network technician positions. The FSC will ultimately employ 200 people, with the capability to expand further as FiOS' market share increases.

"The Tampa center employees will join other FSC employees playing a key role as Verizon provides FiOS customers with an unprecedented broadband and video experience," said Suri Surinder, Verizon's senior vice president and general manager for the Southeast. "Our employees are trained in all aspects of how this technology works, and they will help our customers get the most out of the very best broadband and entertainment services available."

Other fiber centers are located in California, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia and Washington. Specially trained customer-support analysts and network technicians in the centers handle calls from customers who buy FiOS Internet and FiOS TV services. These employees also support Verizon technicians who install the new products, answering technicians' technical questions and remotely diagnosing and correcting problems.

   The requirements for the new positions include:    -- Understanding of communications networking components such as routers,      LAN topology, Ethernet and network interface cards, as well as a      working knowledge of PC hardware and software functionality.   -- Training, education or experience related to PC home-networking      technology.   -- Working at a computer terminal assisting internal and external      customers.   -- Must be willing to work regularly scheduled hours including day,      evening, night weekend and holidays as required. Overtime may also be      required.    Job responsibilities include:    -- Answer incoming calls from customers with order inquiry or trouble      reports, or both.   -- Providing fiber-to-home activation support.   -- Analyzing and isolating trouble conditions.   -- Initiating service-order corrections and changes.   -- Understanding of PC components and functionality; the ability to work      with customers via telephone; and to isolate and resolve problems with      the equipment at a customer location.   

Candidates for the new positions can apply and schedule testing by visiting: www.verizon.com/fiberjobs.

An employment test will be held Nov. 3. Candidates interested in participating in this session should select that test date when they apply, and the location and time for the test will be provided to them. Other test dates are also available after this event.

At the end of the third quarter 2007, 1.3 million Verizon customers were receiving their broadband service over Verizon's all-fiber network, and 717,000 customers were subscribers to FiOS TV. Verizon offers FiOS Internet service in nearly 2,000 communities in 16 states, offering downstream speeds ranging from up to 5 Mbps (megabits per second) to up to 50 Mbps, and upstream speeds ranging from up to 2 Mbps to up to 20 Mbps. The company's all-digital FiOS TV service was available to 4.7 million premises in 12 states at the end of the third quarter. FiOS TV delivers hundreds of digital video and music channels, high-definition programming, video-on-demand content, a robust interactive program guide and other innovative features.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) , headquartered in New York, is a leader in delivering broadband and other wireline and wireless communication innovations to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving 63.7 million customers nationwide. Verizon's Wireline operations include Verizon Business, which delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world, and Verizon Telecom, which brings customers the benefits of converged communications, information and entertainment services over the nation's most advanced fiber-optic network. A Dow 30 company, Verizon has a diverse workforce of nearly 238,000 and last year generated consolidated operating revenues of more than $88 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

VERIZON'S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speeches and biographies, media contacts, high quality video and images, and other information are available at Verizon's News Center on the World Wide Web at www.verizon.com/news. To receive news releases by e-mail, visit the News Center and register for customized automatic delivery of Verizon news releases.

Source: Verizon

CONTACT: Bob Elek of Verizon, +1-813-483-2541 or bob.elek@verizon.com

Web site: http://www.verizon.com/

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Profile: International Entertainment